Matt Damon was set to make his directorial debut with Gold Mist (which I assume is a love story between a queef and a golden shower), co-written by Damon from a first draft by author Dave Eggers (who also wrote Where the Wild Things Are and Away We Go). Only now, Deadline reports that Damon couldn’t commit the time for prep and pre-production, and has handed directing duties to Gus Van Sant, who directed Damon and Affleck’s Oscar-winning screenplay for Good Will Hunting.
The catalyst for the project was John Krasinski, who is making the transition to features as he wraps the final season of the NBC sitcom The Office. Krasinski had an idea for a film that had resonance in the current climate of economic hardship caused by corporate greed. Krasinski paid Eggers to write the first draft, then showed it to Damon and Producer Chris Moore while the latter were making The Adjustment Bureau, which starred Damon and Krasinski’s wife, Emily Blunt.
Gold Mist, is a Capraesque tale in which Damon and Krasinski play rival corporate executives. Damon plays a sales executive who arrives in a small town only to have his whole life called into question. [Deadline]
This is probably unfair, but when I imagine the three of them writing this together, I picture Matt Damon and Dave Eggers bouncing ideas off each other while John Krasinski just sits there making the occasional smug douche face.